Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

UK Olympic funding level to be maintained

Updated at 1:45 pm on 13 August 2012

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced funding for Britain's Olympic sports will be maintained for Rio 2016.

UK Sport, the body that distributes money to Olympic and Paralympic sports, will receive £125 million per year.

How the funding will be allocated between different sports will be decided by UK Sport. It was previously guaranteed only until the end of 2014.

The BBC reports an estimated £87 million per year will come from the National Lottery and about £40 million from the Government.

A statement from Downing Street said the funding would give athletes certainty in the crucial final two years of the run-up to Rio 2016.

''There's a direct link between elite success and participation in sport,'' Mr Cameron says.

"I want one of the legacies of these Games to be our athletes triumphing in Rio in 2016 and in future Olympic Games. Guaranteeing this funding will help ensure that happens."

Mr Cameron has already stated that more needs to be done to build a sporting legacy for British children.

He has already announced that £1 billion is to be invested in school sports over the next four years.

"We need a big cultural change, a cultural change in favour of competitive sports," he told LBC Radio.

With one day of the Games left, Team GB has won 62 medals, 27 of them gold.

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